Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with additional context and response from Gov. Polis's office.
The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has elaborated on claims the governor made about the conservative agenda Project 2025 during a speech on the third night of the Democratic National Convention Wednesday.
Denver7 published this story as a fact check of Polis's comments, citing The Poynter Institute's PolitiFact and other outlets – as well as the text of Project 2025 – in determining some of the governor's claims about the plan were either false or misleading. A spokesman for the governor, Conor Cahill, emailed this writer with what he said were citations for the contents of Polis's speech.
The theme of Wednesday night's program was “Freedom,” with Democratic presenters tying the theme to abortion rights as well as to other issues like gay marriage and school book bans.
In his three-minute address, Polis took aim at Project 2025, the conservative agenda created by the Heritage Foundation that has become a political weapon for Democrats. Some see the document as a possible roadmap for a second Trump presidency, while Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan.
“Project 2025 would turn the entire federal government and bureaucracy into a massive machine,” Polis said before the DNC crowd. “It would weaponize it to control our reproductive and personal choices.”
Polis continued to echo multiple claims previously made by now-Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris that were determined to be "mostly false" by PolitiFact.
We'll take a look at them, with response from the governor's office, below.
Polis’s claims
Project 2025 and 'the only legitimate family'
At one point during his speech, Polis, who is gay, mentioned a section of Project 2025 – page 451, to be exact – about family structure.
“Page 451 says the only legitimate family is a married mother and father, where only the father works,” Polis said while gesturing air quotes. He then removed a page from an enlarged copy of the document with the promise to “share it with undecided voters.”
That phrasing, though, does not exist on Page 451 or in the document. The governor's use of the phrase appears to be in reference to social media posts with similar language that were spread widely this summer, but not the document’s actual text.
Page 451 of the Project 2025 text does promote “policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families,” but mentions neither “the only legitimate family” nor stay-at-home mothers. USA TODAY previously ruled a claim about Project 2025 and "the only valid family" as false.
Still, Cahill wrote to Denver7 that, "on the family piece, it is straightforward," citing the same section of text previously quoted here.
Here is the full text from the section in question:
“Goal #3: Promoting Stable and Flourishing Married Families. Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society. Unfortunately, family policies and programs under President Biden’s HHS are fraught with agenda items focusing on “LGBTQ+ equity,” subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage. These policies should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families.
Working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children, but the United States is experiencing a crisis of fatherlessness that is ruining our children’s futures. In the overwhelming number of cases, fathers insulate children from physical and sexual abuse, financial difficulty or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, high school failure, and a host of behavioral and psychological problems. By contrast, homes with non-related “boyfriends” present are among the most dangerous place for a child to be. HHS should prioritize married father engagement in its messaging, health, and welfare policies.
In the context of current and emerging reproductive technologies, HHS policies should never place the desires of adults over the right of children to be raised by the biological fathers and mothers who conceive them. In cases involving biological parents who are found by a court to be unfit because of abuse or neglect, the process of adoption should be speedy, certain, and supported generously by HHS.”
Project 2025 and abortion access
Polis also claimed that page 562 of the document states that “Donald Trump could use an obscure law from the 1800s to single-handedly ban abortion in all 50 states.”
While the plan does not appear to explicitly call for an outright, nationwide ban on abortion, according to PolitiFact, Polis's office said this claim was in reference to Project 2025's reference to the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits the mailing of "every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use," among other things.
Project 2025 specifically references the Comstock Act – or 18 U.S. Code §§ 1461 and 1462 – in relation to banning the mailing of abortion pills. As a citation for the governor's remark, Cahill pointed us to an abortion-centric blog that wrote in a July 30 post that it is "safe to assume" Project 2025 would expand the use of Comstock to include birth control and abortion supplies.
The agenda does definitively support limits on abortion access and cutting federal funding for abortion services.
And, to be clear, Project 2025 makes no mention of a Trump administration specifically, but habitually references "the next conservative president." It was published in April of 2023, five months after Trump announced his 2024 candidacy.
Project 2025 and IVF
Another potentially misleading claim by Polis focused on Project 2025 and in vitro fertilization. “Page 450 threatens access to IVF,” he said.
In his email, Cahill added that Project 2025 includes "fetal personhood" language. "A fetal personhood bill would indeed threaten IVF," he wrote.
While the page in question makes no mention of IVF, and PolitiFact said the practice does not appear to be mentioned in the document at all, an abortion historian told the site it is "reasonable" to wonder what the text involving the rights of unborn children would mean for IVF.
Project 2025 and contraception
Polis correctly claimed that Project 2025 "puts limits on contraception."
According to PolitiFact, "[Project 2025] does recommend restricting some emergency contraceptives from certain no-cost insurance coverage.”
The governor's office pointed us to Page 484-485, which discuss the contraceptive mandate. Specifically, the section details what the authors state was unlawful issuance of updates to the women’s preventive services mandate, as well as the inclusion of "fertility awareness-based methods of family planning" – different methods of tracking the menstrual cycle as a means of birth control, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – in that mandate:
"HHS should more thoroughly ensure that fertility awareness–based methods of family planning are part of women’s preventive services under the ACA," the text reads. "FABMs often involve costs for materials and supplies, and HHS should make clear that coverage of those items is also required."
Page 482 of the document suggests restoring moral and religious exemptions for companies in providing coverage for some contraceptives. The document also recommends the defunding of Planned Parenthood, a provider of contraceptives, according to PolitiFact.
Project 2025 and reporting miscarriages
Polis also spoke of Project 2025’s suggestion that miscarriages must be reported to the government. That claim is true, but needs some context.
Page 455 of the document – correctly stated by Polis in his DNC speech – says the Department of Health and Human Services should “ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders,” and separate them by category: “spontaneous miscarriage; treatments that incidentally result in the death of a child (such as chemotherapy); stillbirths; and induced abortion.”
The text adds: “Miscarriage management or standard ectopic pregnancy treatments should never be conflated with abortion.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.